“I would hate to see a situation where the Commonwealth was trying to vacate that responsibility of promoting brand Australia and trying to foist it more onto the states – that is not our role,” he said.

“Certainly from a tourism perspective it’s very clear that the government has cut back it’s funding of Tourism Australia, that’s very clear.”

The Budget includes a 2 per cent increase to visa fees, including tourist, working holiday and the 10 year visa for Chinese visitors.

Australian Tourism Export Council director Peter Shelley said the visa increases were an added barrier to international visitation.

“Australia’s export tourism industry delivers billions of dollars in revenue to governments and businesses across the country, but tonight’s Federal Budget fails to provide any investment in its sustained growth,” he said.

“While our industry is clearly generating an enormous amount of tax revenue for Government coffers, we are failing to see any strong investment in ensuring its future and supporting Australia to be a competitive destination.”

The government will make an extra $410 million in revenue over four years as a result of the visa application charge hike.

Despite disappointment with the cuts to Tourism Australia, MP Adam Marshall said regional Australia was the clear winner in the Federal Budget.

“We will continue to do everything we can to encourage extra visitors both to visit the state but particularly regional and rural NSW,” he said.

“Looking at the Federal Budget, there’s no shortage of extra investment in rural and regional areas so that’s very positive.”

Extra funding will come in the way of the Regional Growth Fund, a commitment of $472 million to increase tourist visitation to regional areas.

A portion of that money includes $200 million set aside for the Building Better Regions Program to fund capacity building projects such as roads.